Posted
by
timothy
on Sunday January 26, 2014 @02:50PM
from the old-ways-are-best-ways dept.

Rydia writes "Since it first released, I have been in love with my Nokia N900, and it has satisfied all my needs for a mobile with a high degree of control and utility. Sadly, the little guy is showing his age, both in battery life (even with the powersaving kernel options enabled), and performing in general has been left far, far in the dust by phones that are now considered quite old. The time has come to find its successor, but after a thorough search of smartphone options, I can't find any handset that offers everything for the power user that the N900 did (much less a hardware keyboard). I'd like to avoid supporting Google/Android, but there don't seem to be many options. Have any other techies found a replacement for their N900?"

For one because you would expect something that can be customised and configured, but instead droid devices uses an all-or-nothing security model and come with tons of pre-installed uninstallable sh..tuff.And g+

Maybe because he doesn't like the idea of his private life being a product that is sold to the highest bidder? Just a guess.

Ironically a quick glance through your private posts, shows your continued subterfuge about Google *selling* your data. Google business model is to *NEVER* sell your data. Advertising is the product. If they sold your data they wouldn't have a product.

Almost everyone here understands the model, yet you persist in this transparent lie. Interestingly search Microsoft's and Apple EULA using the search for what they do with trusted *cough* third partys.

We will share personal information with companies, organizations or individuals outside of Google when we have your consent to do so. We require opt-in consent for the sharing of any sensitive personal information. [google.com].

So Google does "share" data with advertisers as part of their money stream. A very specific subset is opt-in, but everything else is opt-out. If services get updated and you're not careful, you can miss an opt-out. See Privacy and Copyright Protection [google.com]

I'm not sure how anyone can read that and not understand that they're selling your data. They're just calling it sharing. Everything in the EULA you already agreed to in order for you to use a Google service grants them the permission they need.

Selling implies Google hands over the data. They don't. They provide APIs for 3rd parties to access statistics which may describe you and then submit advertising which Google will then present to the user.

If they handed over their data they'd gut their income stream. It's a company who's income is based solely on the fact that they know everything about everyone. They don't hand this info over, they facilitate other people using the info they have.

How do you think Google's ad service works? That is the question, and the answer reveals how stupid selling the data would be.

Google's service is simple:1) Submit an ad to Google (banner / flash / etc)2) Look at the list of demographics, do you want male or female, what age, what interests?3) Press submit

Google will store the ad on their server, when a user who matches the chosen profile loads a page with Google ads embedded in it, Google will insert the ad into the page where it downloads from their servers.

Notice specifically that this places Google as the middleman between you and the advertiser, the advertiser chooses what they want from the restaurant menu, Google cooks it then delivers the finished meal (people who clicked on ads) and a bill.

If Google sold the information, Google would have no business, the advertiser could sell ads directly without Google's help.

This is sooooooooo true. Only the other day, I logged in to AdWords, and there at the top of the screen was a big box that said "Find out the life history of anyone on the Internet by entering their email address, reddit, or Slashdot ID in this box".

So I looked for a random number. There was a flyer for a local car dealership advertising a Corolla for $9,751.38, so I entered that, and clicked Submit. There was a brief request asking me to give my consent to a charge of 25c on my Google Wallet, and I thought "What the hell, why not?" and gave it.

There, in front of me, was all the information about "975138" I asked for. It was one of those "Be careful what you wish for, you might get it" things. Slashdot had pulled up the details of some Slashdotter with the nick "Jaktar".

Everything was there.

His phone numbers. His credit record. I could see he'd spent over $300 in the last month on "Gold pony cookies" for the popular free-to-play Facebook game "Pony club". He had a recurring membership on several websites, including the Alabama Post Gazette, Netflix, and something called "Hot Manponies Dot Com".

Even better was that all of this was hyperlinked to similarly relevant information. I clicked on a credit card billing line marked "KATZ PSYCHIATRIC SERV COPAY", and immediately received a list of future and prior appointments with a therapist. The prior appointments were also hyperlinked, and a quick click revealed a Google Voice style transcription of the appointment in question (not that interesting, 20 minutes of it was marked "(extended sobbing, 2 mins)" alternating with "(hysterical laughing, 60 seconds)".

Finally, there was information to help people like me, who just want to advertise and tailor our ads to people like "Jaktar". Google had analyzed the person's history, and recommended various keywords I could use in my ads to appeal to people like him. "Star Wars", "Leia", "PHP", "Free to play", and "Ponies" came up.

This type of information is gold, quite frankly. Advertisers like me are always interested in targetting specific people at great expense, rather than trying to appeal to broad swathes of the population, so Google collecting this data and selling it to us is exactly what we need.

Absolutely fair, but just get CyanogenMod or flash stock any AOSP ROM without Google Apps and you're good to go. I'm assuming the author is capable of doing this because the N900 requires some technical skills to really enjoy anyways.

Or how about because Google are a few steps shy of becoming Weyland Yutani?
I understand a corporation has to diversify, eggs and baskets and all that, but it doesn't mean I have to support them in that effort.

Oh please, if you aren't happy with Google now you are an astroturfer? Fanboy much?

Lets see...they made the TOS nastier, so they could monetize the hell out of you, have gotten so bad at bugging the piss out of YouTube users to use G+ that I've had to install a browser just for YouTube so Google couldn't bug the piss out of me, and the amount of tying everything to your user account has gotten so creepy and stalkerish that i made a throw away Gmail for my Android so it would stop trying to dump G+ from my m

I'm intrigued by the Neo900, it would be nice to switch to something that is simply an improvement without worry about compromise and sacrifices.

I bought a Jolla and it has it's ups and downs. The interface is slick and smooth. The android app support works reasonably well (it's definitely not perfect, but has been good enough for most things I've tried). The sailfish sdk is a lot nicer than the old maemo sdk. The other half idea still seems like it will be nice once things start coming out (or I make some myself). The terminal application is actually fairly nice, though the on screen keyboard is still not as nice as a hardware keyboard.

On the downside, it lacks the 1700MHz band that the n900 had, which makes it worse to use in the US. I think there are some other bands that US carriers have for LTE that the jolla doesn't have but neither did the n900. I read somewhere that the FM (yes, I used to use both transmit and recieve on my n900, occassionally) antenna pins aren't actually wired up, so even if someone activates that functionality in the bt chip, it wouldn't really work. LTE support hasn't actually been implemented in the software yet. The settings seem sparse and missing some options that would be nice. Of course the lack of a hardware keyboard is annoying, as is the lack of IR support (I used it all the time on my n900). Jolla still hasn't publicly released CAD files to make it easy for people to design and print their own other halves. And I feel a general sense of the device not being complete (worse than the n900 when it came out) and that the developers are still almost as closed off and unresponsive as the maemo and meego team at Nokia. I was hoping for a little more openess once they actually released a phone.

Overall, I think I'd lean slightly toward the Neo900 for the short term (particularly for US users), but I still have hope that the Jolla will actually develop into something even nicer, eventually, maybe.

that the developers are still almost as closed off and unresponsive as the maemo and meego team at Nokia.

Technically, the developers *are* the maemo/meego team at Nokia. Or were formelly, before splitting away.

but I still have hope that the Jolla will actually develop into something even nicer, eventually, maybe.

Unlike most other open project (like openmoko, for exemple), Jolla, because of this background, have probably much more know how and experience putting actual phone on the market. So I'm also expecting that in the long run they are going to do quite well.

They already managed to sell a phone which after all is more or less decent.

I think it's important to establish what makes the N900 great. Can't speak for the OP, but this is what I'm hoping for in a phone once my N900 finally gives up the ghost. "Hoping," notice I said, but I'm not holding my breath.

1. Scriptability. First and foremost. *I* want to be the one in control of the phone [maemo.org], not some app developer vetted by The Place That Decides What You Can Do With Our --I Mean Your-- Phone (or "AppStore" for short). I want to write a bash script, or a python script, and tell me when my beloved has sent me a SMS containing the word "URGENT".

2. Freedom. Yes, I mean openness as in open source. Yes, I do know not everything in the N900 was open-sourced, but a heck of a lot of it was. That let a lot of people hack it, for the benefit of the community. And it didn't void the warranty. There's something to be said for a phone that does not need you to join the Apple club with a credit card, or sign up with Big Brother Google before using the phone -- you really are independent.

3. Portability of software. It's awesome that I can run Gnumeric on this thing, but even more important that I run Vim.

4. Three things you can change: the cell phone provider, the battery, and the memory storage card. Mainly a criticism compared to the early iPhones; not sure if they still apply. I understand that there are unlocked iPhones now (which still cost more than the N900 did) but you can't change the battery. Android phones will take microSD now, I think?

In fact, to lower my chances of being forced to make do without a good alternative, I bought a second N900, and regularly synchronize the spare so I can have it up and running in case it's needed quickly. I wasn't seeing anything on the horizon, and figured I'd probably have to hang on to my pair of N900's for at least another 3 years. This Slashdot discussion is very useful.

There are, of course, lots to hate about the N900. Most of it deals with the slow swapping caused by the relatively small RAM, versus the large RAM that would be needed by a truly multitasking computer/smartphone. (Compare this with the iPhone that was out at the time, which did not multitask. Do iPhones multitask yet?) The user interface is also unintuitive and poorly thought out. Wish it had been given a chance, but once Elop came on board, there was zero chance of that.

As I've said before, the N900 is a piece of crap --but it's the BEST piece of crap in the world!

Scriptability. First and foremost. *I* want to be the one in control of the phone [maemo.org], not some app developer vetted by The Place That Decides What You Can Do With Our --I Mean Your-- Phone (or "AppStore" for short). I want to write a bash script, or a python script, and tell me when my beloved has sent me a SMS containing the word "URGENT".

You may want to check out Tasker, it does this sort of stuff.

Freedom. Yes, I mean openness as in open source. Yes, I do know not everything in the N900 was open-sourced,

Oh god yes please. Sometimes I have to do some amount of scripting on my phone, and a hardware keyboard is a complete necessity. On the Android side, I've gone from a Samsung Epic to a Motorola Photon, but I can't find a good next upgrade path. At this point I don't care about Android or iPhone or anything as long as I can get a slide-out keyboard with brackets on the keys.

About a year ago I purchased a Photon Q for much the same reasons as the person who posted the original comment. I was extremely weary of the non-removable battery. A year later and it is still the most solid phone I have ever had. Also, the keyboard is a full five rows and one of, if not the best keyboard I have ever used on a phone.

It's no hardware keyboard, but the Hacker's Keyboard [google.com] is quite useful for scripting/cli purposes. Unfortunately it only works well in landscape mode, which ends up severely restricting your vertical space, and some apps insist on using the stupid "full screen text box" input method in landscape orientation which is completely useless, but by and large it works as well as one can expect for an on screen keyboard.

I find that MessagEase is an excellent keyboard for scripting. In fact, I like it better than a hardware keyboard. All the letters, numbers and other printable characters you need are available with a single swipe. Nowadays, after special request, it also includes Ctrl, Alt and F1..F12. Vim works wonderfully well once you master the non-standard layout.

The only major drawback is that it eats screen real estate. I'd recommend a Galaxy Note with a nice big screen for that, although I get by well enough on a H

I got one from preordering and I really like it a lot. If the thing you like in n900 is the community and the hackability, you will like Jolla too. Most importantly, I'm able to use it as my work phone already, so it's not just a plaything. So far there has been a steady stream of updates and apps. If you are in US, getting one is probably not very easy, but maybe you can get one from ebay or something? (Check the frequencies etc. first.)

To be specific. The main part of the engineering and designer team that made Maemo on n900 moved on to make N9 and n950 (unpublished successor to the n900), and after Elop closed the development moved on to make the company called jolla.

Their OS is evolution of the line which started with the Maemo tablets, culminating in n900 and N9/n950. The phone is in beta phase through you can buy one. One of their specialities is the special separate back panel system, which apparently has a digital connection to the main phone, allowing you to replace the standard back cover for one with keyboard eventually when one is developed.

Overall, if you're looking for n900 successor today, jolla is about the only thing that comes to mind.

Hrm, imo, not really...only in that it had a keyboard. Otherwise, it was very different. I would call it an unpublished N9-with-keyboard-and-no-NFC. I forget if there were any other differences - oh, it was quite straightforward to replace the battery on the n950, unlike the n9.

*I* was on the engineering team and I have an n900, n950 and n9 somewhere around here - my wife still uses the n9. It was only a successor in that it came after the n900 - it shared nothing much else with the n900, apart from perhaps the base linux was similar, but the middleware and UI were totally different.

Like I say, if you meant to say that it just came after the n900, then that is correct. I took you to mean something more than that.

So? The Nexus 5 has nothing to do with what made n900 great. Jolla has a pretty similar OS, community and development environment. Neither phone has a hardware keyboard. Either you are willing to pay for the better OS or you are not... I agree that Android hardware is the most cost effective hardware on the planet.

(Part of the Jolla price is 24% sales tax to Finland - it would be nice if they had a separate export price for people outside EU without the tax. Hopefully soon.)

There's a Neo900 project attempting to make a modernized version of the N900, software and hardware. I don't know if they'll succeed and be able to do it at a price one can afford, but you might check it out if interested. If you don't visit maemo.org forums you might wish to.

I like my N9, but not the way I loved my N900. I especially miss the h/w keyboard.

There's also the Jolla phone, but its availability and network compatibility is limited now (e.g. current version might work in the US but as 2G only, the only modem offered in it is designed for European market, or part thereof, no idea what rest of the world situation would be like). And again, no h/w keyboard.

A sledgehammer, but it really is a poor substitute. They aren't as strong as the N900 was. As I understand it, the replacement program for the Space Shuttle suffered a major setback after they were discontinued; they're having to rely on conventional heat shielding now to re-enter the atmosphere.

Hats off to you, sir, for holding out longer than I could with my Palm T|X.

Currently I'm rather happy with CyanogenMOD on my HTC myTouch Slide 4G (and the slide 3G before that). Too bad they haven't updated the myTouch Slide line for a while, since they'd carve out a nice little niche for themselves being one of the only major Android manufacturers that did physical keyboards.

I'm about to break down and just get a Nexus something, and pair it with an external portable keyboard (there are various cases that help make this more portable).

Also, I think you'd enjoy running full ARM linux on an Android device, but look at the forums forhttps://play.google.com/store/... [google.com]and check which ROMs support the loopback module (or make sure you can build one for yourself). Not all of my third-party ROMs bothered to do this, so I only have a full chroot Debian distro behind one or two of my Android devices:/

I also would put a vote in for the MyTouch 4G Slide. Not as good as the n900 but it has been a decent replacementand being mainstream it does have the advantage of having things like wifi hotspot, vendor support, and plenty of apps.Make sure it is the HTC version and not the recent replacement which isn't near as good.If you are trying to avoid android another option is to get a bluetooth keyboard case for an iphone. The case basicallyattachs a physical keyboard to the iphone.

is itself a major problem these days. I'm using a Droid 4 because it's one of the few with any kind of keyboard available. You may or may not like Android, but you can always put CyanogenMod on it, if you want to move further away from the carrier's grasping tentacles.

Congratulations, you made it far longer than I did. My N900 started to show hardware problems about a year ago, and radio problems/disconnects were the last straw. I loved the versatility and control, but ultimately I needed the damn thing to make calls and browse. I nabbed a Nexus 4 when they got cheap, and have adjusted reasonably well. I had a fair look at the iDevices, but wanted something faster and with a bigger screen. I coveted the Galaxy Note series, and might have been happier that way, but I wanted something closer to the N900 size. Recently got my kid a Moto G -- and currently it seems to be the best deal reminiscent of the size/screen of the N900. But still there is the lack of a hardware keyboard... there's just no substitute for input-intensive apps. Maybe Jolla will solve that.

If you do head in the direction of Android, these might make it easier:- Have a look at Cyanogenmod, and see if you can find a sweet spot with hardware you like and a recent version.- Read up on App Ops, the utility that allows one to have granular permissions for applications, and restore a modicum of privacy control.- Don't be afraid to disable all the default apps/Google+/hangouts/crap. Android works just fine with the processes disabled.- Have a look at bare android/Samsung's overlays/cyanogenmod before you commit to them, there are significant differences.- Try getting an older phone and experimenting with it before you jump. I obtained a Galaxy S1/Vibrant, learned all about the boot loaders, firmware, and OS installation, and tried out various roms before settling back on Cyanogenmod. (Then I taught the kids how to do it, and gave the phone to my 10yo -- never too early for mobile hacking.) All of the features aside, the process restored some of the sense of control that I had with the N900. Some of it real, some of it not, but at least I knew were I stood wrt the device I was using most frequently.

I didn't have an N900, but I know them. My primary concern was always a hardware keyboard. I've moved through my share of hardware keyboard phones, mostly the very solid line of HTC WinMo phones(Kaiser, Mogul, etc). The closest thing I could find nowadays that at least gives me something close to a hardware keyboard while being an actually solid phone is the Galaxy Note series. The Note 2 is cheap now that the Note 3 is out and is still a very solid device. It's Android, which OP doesn't want, but oh w

If you're really bent on having a hardware keyboard, the Blackberry Q10 is pretty decent. There's zero apps for it, but I guess you didn't mind if you held on to your N900 for so long.

Otherwise, get a ridiculously overpowered/underpriced android phone like a Wiko. They got for like $200 without a plan and run a recent Android on very decent hardware. This way you can try it out without sinking too much money into a samsung or htc phone if it turns out you can't stand Android.

A lot of Android apps, even ones that run just fine on the BlackBerry Z10, fail miserably on the Q10.

I think it's because of the perfectly square screen - the hardware doesn't HAVE a 'portrait' or 'landscape' mode, so the app goes AUGHWTFBBQ and quits.

The other issue I have is that the hardware keyboard simply doesn't work in a lot of Android apps. Letters will type the wrong character, and using the Sym key to access things like the = is a real crapshoot.

Currently, they seem to be the best option If you want to avoid supporting google. Personally, I'm sticking with my N900. I wouldn't mind something newer but don't see a need to spend a lot of money when my N900 still works fine.

There are a few android phones like motorola droid or the lg enact with slideout keyboards like the one in the N900 (not sure if as comfortable too). They aren't too powerful, nor with a big resolution screen, but probably would be an improvement. With a bit of luck you can install cyanogenmod on them, or even ubuntu touch or others built from android base like firefox os for extra hackability.

If you want another kind of phone, Blackberry Q10 have a keyboard and a good screen resolution for that format. An

But that's just it. He's still in love with his "Amiga". He wants the same thing, but newer. They're no longer made. Such is life.

No one can tell him what to like. It's just post fodder for the iOS and Android fans to scream at each other again.

Realistically, if he's so stuck on a keyboard, he's pretty much stuck with the Blackberry devices, and they don't give him the other features he says he wants. So the author is going to have to make some choices.

Of course he's going to have to make some choices. But when making such choices, it's helpful to have a feel for how well the devices work in practice, for the intended use: I've had plenty of devices in the past that, according to their specs at least, were perfect - but ended up being frustratingly deficient in some way. Reading online reviews can help with this to some extent, but they tend not to focus on (say) programming as a use case - so I can imagine that input from slashdotters would be very valuable here. (It's also really helpful for pointing out phones/other devices that the author may not have considered, that don't necessarily come up in a typical web search...)

On thing to consider is getting a Bluetooth keyboard. You can also use a regular USB keyboard with most any smart phone with a USB OTG cable. Of course, carrying around a separate keyboard may not be convenient depending on how you use the device. I would think someone probably makes a small Bluetooth keyboard designed to be carried with a phone.

Hmmm. Maybe I should Google that? Hey, what do you know? You can get a Bluetooth keyboard that is designed to attach to your smart phone, sliding out just like a built-in keyboard would.

I haven't used one, but with a number of options available, this is likely the best route to go. You might want a small one that you carry with you, and a full-sized one that you keep at home or work for more extensive use.

It's got a hardware keyboard, Linux underneath, homebrew scene going strong and a bunch of apps that you might find useful, ymmv. Battery life is 3 days with powersaver and data switching on/off on demand. Really everything you could ask for if you want a decent specced/priced smartphone which is a bit newer than your n900, sports a great capacitive touchscreen and since obsolete ecosystems seem to be your thing, welcome on board: www.http://webosnation.com

You want great hardware with a LOT of software options and a high degree of hackability?

Buy an iPhone (or iPad mini) and jailbreak it.

You aren't feeding your personal information to advertisers or Google. You have great customization of privacy per-app, built in - which you can further customize with jailbreak utilities.

Furthermore NO device is as hackable in the correct sense of the word as the iPhone is, because most apps are written in ObjectiveC if you want to modify some small aspect of an existing app you can do so.

If you really need a hardware keyboard, key a good Bluetooth keyboard (just as you would with any Android device as pretty much all of them are touchscreen only now).

You also get a lot of great VNC and terminal options on iOS that you can simply buy.

I'm currently giving a try at leaving my beloved n900 behind with an S3. The hack-ability of the n900 was fun to have but it wasn't something I relied on. I actually like the n900 as a good phone. The real motivation was to move to more modern hardware ( better radio, better battery life, some extra CPU , etc.) but the biggest reason was to be on a supported platform. Any apps or such that come out are either Apple or Android. Things like work apps and latest apps of any type were off-limits on the n900. Bu

Im also lookign to replace my N900 (which i like), previously had an OpenMoko Neo (which was a great talking piece, bad phone).

Im currently keeping an eye on the fairphone, they are just finishing there first batch of 25,000 phones and looking at a new order soon. Second release is usually a good one to get in one as they have had a chance to find and fix hardware bugs.

The replicant project has done a review of the fairphone, there biggest criticim of it is that it doest have good hardware isolation to prev

I had a similar issue with my phone (top of the line back in 2005), battery lasting less than fourteen hours some days (more roaming searching) and bulging. Got a brand new battery on eBay for a few dollars with free shipping, hopefully good for another decade or so.

I sent a friend's N900 off for repair last year and an unused one came back along with the faulty one which they hadn't bothered to repair.I'll probably use the faulty one (which I have now) as a GPS or something since the fault does not completely disable it.

Backlit LCD screens suck immensely in bright sunlight, so here's an alternative I hope will catch on:http://onyx-boox.com/coming-so... [onyx-boox.com] Pocketbook and Yotta has similar concepts but lack of touch on the Pocketbook addon for the Galaxy S3 looks like a huge drawback to me.

I was facing the same problem as you are, and I would have gotten myself an N9 if Nokia hadn't announced that they would ditch Meego completely. That day I decided I was done with Nokia for good and I was forced to find a viable alternative.

To me it was Android on a Galaxy S2, but - and this is important - one built entirely from source. Granted - there are still things I miss from my N900 (the keyboard mostly), but a rooted Android device comes close these days.

especially so if you buy one of the many chinese phones sold as carrier-own handsets in Europe (most made by ZTE) - pretty good average spec, much faster than an N900, better screens, fairly minimal Android installs

I think that's not true, since not all Andoird phones come with Google Play - I can't even install it on my ZTE Geek, though I'd be happy to find out how to do so. I can install Amazon's equivalents and it comes with some other store(s) too, so I don't feel like I'm missing much.

It was shit. I didn't really realise quite how shit it was until I upgraded to an iPhone. Never looked back since.

It's not a phone for the general population. The N900 was a phone for hackers, developers, etc.: people who needed a pocket computer with phone functionality. Sort of the "anti-iPhone" in its philosophy. You were clearly not in the (tiny) target demographic, and whoever sold you yours was not your friend, didn't know you very well, or didn't as the right questions. (I just described a salesman, didn't I?)

agreed to an extent.
it was first gen phone, that needed a couple more generations to get it all right. However, the basic idea of the n900 was awesome, and still exceeds what I see on the market today.

Easy enough. Get any recent phone that's supported by Cyanogenmod. Install Cyanogenmod. Then install Debian (or similar). This can be accomplished as a dual boot or as a chroot inside Android. I have Debian installed on my phone; it's kind of fun to dabble with and show people.

Agreed. A rooted Android phone with a decent mod on it is as close as you can get to a Unix box in your pocket. The lack of a physical keyboard is a drag, but with a decent stock keyboard replacement like SwiftKey, it is not the end of the world.

I recently put Cyanogenmod on my droid razr and actually got geeked out on my phone again. Everything just works like it should. The ROMs that come from the phone companies are bloated and inefficient. Do not make the mistake of judging the Android ecosystem by what you see in the stores.

There are even some useful utilities for Android. (http://ultimatepeter.com/freakin-cool-hacking-apps-for-android/)

Agreed. A rooted Android phone with a decent mod on it is as close as you can get to a Unix box in your pocket. The lack of a physical keyboard is a drag, but with a decent stock keyboard replacement like SwiftKey, it is not the end of the world.

What about the OpenPandora? That's an actual linux box in your pocket, keyboard included.

Agreed. A rooted Android phone with a decent mod on it is as close as you can get to a Unix box in your pocket. The lack of a physical keyboard is a drag, but with a decent stock keyboard replacement like SwiftKey, it is not the end of the world.

I recently put Cyanogenmod on my droid razr and actually got geeked out on my phone again. Everything just works like it should. The ROMs that come from the phone companies are bloated and inefficient. Do not make the mistake of judging the Android ecosystem by what you see in the stores.

There are even some useful utilities for Android. (http://ultimatepeter.com/freakin-cool-hacking-apps-for-android/)

True, but inconvenient which is why I still use mine despite much faster hardware being available.Also I've used my computer keyboard and mouse on my N900 with X2X and a wireless connection so a separate bluetooth keyboard especially for the phone does not impress:)

Easy enough. Get any recent phone that's supported by Cyanogenmod. Install Cyanogenmod. Then install Debian (or similar). This can be accomplished as a dual boot or as a chroot inside Android.

Or as neither.I like Sven-Ola's debian kit [dyndns.org] which takes advantage of the (mostly) disjoint directory structure of Android and Debian (or rather LSB) to run Debian and Android in the same root. The benefit over chroot is that you can plug in a USB drive, SD card, etc. and instantly have access in/Removable/Foo for both Android and Debian apps, as well as the ability to use Debian programs (e.g. text editor) in the Android hierarchy. You can get the same functionality with enough bind mounts, but debian-kit makes it a lot simpler IMO.

I'd also recommend zshaolin [google.com] for those looking for a friendly *n*x environment without installing a whole distribution, or if they don't have and can't/won't get root access.

Chroot's still aren't as good. My N900 could run some games I made using PyGAME (all I had to do was something like sudo apt-get install python-pygame) and it was good to go - ran the game just as well as my laptop did, with acceleration. Beautiful.

Unfortunately my N900 screen broke for a second time last year, and I threaded one of the screws trying to replace it, so I too found myself looking for a replacement phone. Even with overclocking the N900 was painfully slow on complex websites, so I wanted something modern but with a hardware keyboard. I couldn't find anything except possibly the Neo900 [neo900.org] (which didn't have an ETA at the time - and I wouldn't have been able to wait for anyway), so I decided that I would get the biggest screen I could find - the logic being that if I have to use a virtual keyboard I want it to provide an experience as close to a hardware keyboard as possible.

Hence, I now run a Sony Xperia Z Ultra [wikipedia.org] with the Hacker's Keyboard. Obviously not as good as a hardware keyboard, but the screen size means the virtual keyboard can fit all keys I had on the N900 (and then some) and still have plenty of room to see the text-box I'm typing into.

The Xperial Z Ultra also has expandable storage so a chroot is feasible, and I admit I've used this phone much more than my N900 due to it being more practical for games, e-mail, taking pictures, etc. Sony also provide instructions on unlocking the bootloader [sonymobile.com]. However, lacking a true GNU userland environment for the primary OS, along with lacking the ease of gaining root and lacking a replaceable battery) are things I really miss. I also hate how much of the bloatware cannot be removed, although it can be disabled. It is waterproof though, so it's got that going for it.

I nuked or disabled almost everything related to Sony and Google Play and installed F-Droid instead, and then proceeded to install Firefox Mobile, K-9 and APG, Xabber, TTRSS-Reader, VLC, Open Explorer, Barcode Scanner, Terminal Emulator, Cool Reader, Document Viewer, Aard, OsmAnd~, ScummVM, AnkiDroid, World Clock, VX ConnectBot, a few ownCloud-related sync apps... and of course Frozen Bubble, and now Android can do most of the things I would have used my N900 for.

Ugh. Androids drivers are a mess and cyanogen just makes that more apparent. My n900 has a specialized kernel, injection and monitor mode, overclocking, and they even made better camera drivers. With cyanogen mod the opposite happens...things break. Some hardware just completely is unusable. Android is nothing at all like the n900 was, and google will never let that happen anyway. Nor do the manufacturers want it.

As for Debian on an android? Yo dawg, i heard you like Linux, but since you can't have Linux we put some virtualized Linux in your virtualized Linux.

I'm reasonably certain Google does not give a hoot what you do with your android phone. Manufacturers and more commonly, carriers, are the ones that do not want you messing about. See Google Nexus [wikipedia.org]. Your carrier is going to want you messing about with a maemo phone just as much as they want you messing about with android or iOS devices.

I run cyanogen. Sometimes things break. How often depends on ow well supported your device is. It's not the end of the world, or hasn't been for me so far. Much like

Even for non-hackers, it had substantial advantages over the iPhone 3GS at the time. This was the days of IOS3, when copy&paste was considered a cutting-edge feature, and multi-tasking was only allowed for Apple's own built-in apps.Only later when the iphone4 with retina display, and IOS4 came out, did the n900 start looking old.Of course there was a price in thickness and weight for all the extra hardware features of the n900.

No. I can't speak for the GP but I was definitely in the target demographic and the n900 was shit.I've been a programmer for about 30 years, my normal environment is vim and a shell. The keyboard and screen size on the n900 were too compromised to make it an effective or productive environment. During the couple of years that I had it I took in on holiday once and spent two weeks on a beach trying to write code on it. After I got back I rewrote the two weeks of coding in about an hour. Trying to code on a h

My Nokia E5 was similarly out of date. Since I use my phone generally for texting, email, twitter I didn't need a big screen but do need a keyboard to be happy. I was not enthused about committing to the BlackBerry platform due to the perceived financial issues, but BBRY has already released a few updates and app support is good enough for me. BlackBerry has taken care of me so far.

And the keyboard is incredible - not just passable, but enjoyable to type on.

I wish I had mod points to mod you up. I love my Q10. I'm an annoyance to my peers. Every time they launch into a rant about some issue they're having with their iPhone, I listen respectfully for however long it takes them to fizzle out, and then I just pull out the Q10, and while starting to check my messages, I just casually say "I think you already know what my solution to that issue is".
I gave up trying to sell people on it a long time ago, and I also gave up trying to help people work around their iP

you think the name will stick? I don't. They crapped over the RIM brand, and had to drop it for BB, and BB now is getting all crapped over as obsolete and slow and cheap. Nortel, which was a much bigger company totally disappeared in a flash, and they had a pretty good reputation.

BB just seems to be hanging on kind of pointlessly. They are selling their building to get some more quick cash, and seem to be burning through it at a good pace. I suppose they could limp along for a while longer selling chea

Really? The board are the ones to blame, but not because the 'allowed' anything, but because they installed incentives to do exactly what he did do. I'm tempted to think they wanted to get out of mobile phones altogether. I totally don't blame Elop - he did an excelent job - I blame those who asked him to do what he did.

The rest was true on the October release when I tried it last. and they have not released anything different cince then then. Last time I tried to compile a daily release it refused to compile, at that point I walked away from it as something that is worthless.

Phone calls are #1 priority, and an incoming phone call MUST have absolute priority over all other parts of the OS. These developers dont know that, the craptastic OpenMoko phone from a few years ago had the same problems. I honestly would give an app 2 rings to die and release control, on ring #3 all apps not sleeping should be violently killed by the OS, and reported to the mothership that it is misbehaving causing a UI problem to the phone.

Why? Is there something technical you're opposed to or is this simply a case of "I hate Big Corp X"? I'm not trolling, but frankly speaking I can't think of any reason to hate Google that doesn't lead one to also hate Apple or Microsoft, and that pretty much rules out your options for smartphones. If you simply dislike them then fine, but without telling us WHAT it is you dislike or WHY you're avoiding that company, we really can't make any adequate suggestions as to an alternative.

There are at least here other active smartphone platforms out there...

Windows Phone: probably not something the poster would consider, and while some of the WP7 models had hardware keyboards I don't think any WP8 ones do, so the hardware and OS would be nearly as obsolescent anyhow. Hackability, on the other hand... Well, a WP7 device with a suitably modified custom ROM might almost work, but it won't be Linux. Most WP8 devices don't have much in the way of hacks at all. If you were to go this route, the ph